86 BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM. 
Stury in the reign of Richard II. He was a person of considerable 
influence in Edward III’s reign, and shared with Alice Perrers the 
control of the king in his old age. In the next reign he took a 
leading part in the politics of the day, and was an active supporter 
of the Lollards. His grandson alienated the manor to Richard 
Wydeville in 1445. Wydeville was created Baron Rivers in 1447, 
and Edward IV, who had married his daughter Elizabeth, 
advanced him to the dignity of Earl, making him Constable of 
England in 1465. 
Earl Rivers was seized by a body of Lancastrians at North- 
ampton in 1469, and beheaded by order of the Duke of Clarence 
and the Earl of Warwick. His son Anthony was beheaded at 
Pontefract in 1483, by order of the Duke of Gloucester, on a 
charge of suspected treason, when the title and estates came to 
PLaTeE 31.—LEE BRIDGE HOUSE. 
Richard his brother, and he, dying in 1491 without issue, 
appointed his nephew, Lord Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset, 
his heir. 
His life being threatened by Richard III, the marquis fled to 
Brittany, and joined Henry Earl of Richmond on the accession of 
the latter to the throne. After the Battle of Bosworth he resumed 
possession of Lee and his other property. His son exchanged the 
Manor of Lee, with Bankers and Shroffold, with Henry VIII in 
1512 for other lands in Leicestershire. 
The manor remained with the Crown until the year 1631, 
when Charles I granted it to Ralph Freeman, of Aspeden in Hert- 
fordshire, Lord Mayor of London in 1633, and he, by will, left 
